An untamed beast

The neo-Nazis haven't gone away

ONE of the things people always say about grand coalitions in Germany is that they risk pushing malcontents towards the political extremes. So how big a challenge does Germany's far right now pose?

The good news from last month's German election was that the neo-Nazi National Democrats (NPD) won only 1.6% of votes, well below the 5% needed to enter parliament. Paradoxically, the movement may have been hit by the new Left Party, which chased far-right voters. But it would be wrong to assume the NPD is reverting to obscurity, after winning a disturbing 9.2% of the vote at a state election in Saxony a year ago.

Most Germans worry about far-right parties only when they win more than 5% of the vote, says Toralf Staud, the author of a book on the NPD called “Modern Nazis”. The big danger, he argues, lies not in the risk that the NPD will one day win seats in the Bundestag, the lower house, but in its efforts to promote fascism in some east German regions.

The NPD may be Germany's oldest neo-Nazi party, but its strategy is modern. It is no longer a sect seeking only to defend the Third Reich. It has rebranded its old xenophobia by including the rhetoric of resistance to global capitalism. Another fashionable cause is opposing Turkey's entry into the European Union.

A jumper on band-wagons, the party has backed protests against labour-market reforms and the war in Iraq. The NPD has also found a place in far-right youth culture, which now consists of more than skinheads in bomber jackets: its symbols are fashion brands, football loyalties and, above all, music. Music is the NPD's way of attracting youngsters. It recently handed out 200,000 copies of a CD called “School Yard”, a medley of rock songs and nationalist ballads.

It is in “Saxon Switzerland”, a mountainous area near the Czech border, that the NPD has had its biggest impact. And it is in Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna, a village of 1,600, that the party got its best result in last year's local elections: more than 25%—enough for two seats on the local council. Nationalism is cool among local youth. Feting Hitler's birthday is one of their pastimes; if your skin is the wrong colour, this place could be perilous.

Few of the burghers of Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna are neo-Nazis. Yet resistance to the far right is picking up only slowly, partly because some fear that discussing it openly could hurt tourism. However, a “citizens' initiative” is now warning people about the NPD's rise. At a reading of Mr Staud's book in a local bar, people exchanged ideas about what to do. “We have to stop looking away when we see young people in their right-wing gear, but talk to them,” said one woman.

Curbing right-wing extremism will take time, says Mr Staud. And it needs attention not only at times when the NPD does well. Despite its poor showing in Saxony (4.9%) and Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna (14.4%) in the general election, the party topped a recent straw poll among youths under 18 in Saxon Switzerland, with 28.1%.